The smaller they are, the harder to make.
If you’ve never tried to make anything with polymer clay, I don’t know if I’ll be able to adequately describe just what a pain in the butt this “little” item was to make. For starters, I’ve never had any “formal” training in using this stuff — I use Sculpey brand, and haven’t tried others so don’t know how alike or different they may all be. I’ve never read a how-to book or watched a video or gone to a workshop. Like a lot of what I do, I just got some of the stuff and started messing with it. So. Yes. “Making it up as I go along.”
But…and this is a big qualifier…it was as much fun as that roller coaster at Six Flags that I rode about six times one day (that I can’t remember the name of, since it was about 20+ years ago).
I started with light blue pearl rolled into a ball and flattened out into a circle. I cut big triangles out around the edges, leaving a large enough area in the middle to mount the disc of the sun. The disc was a smaller ball of white, and only partially flattened. With another ball of white I made another very flat circle and cut it up like a pizza to make the “rays.” I baked all the pieces separately and then glued them together — not nearly so easy as it sounds. Then I had to make a new plan because I wanted to add some more blue rays, but the white disc wasn’t thick enough. So I made another little white ball but mixed in some of the light blue pearl to create some sun spots. Before I baked it, I mooshed it down a little on top of the white disc so the back would match the curvature. Then more gluing. Sounds simple, yes? Or at least relatively straight forward.
The problem is that the little pieces are fragile — I snapped the ends off a couple of the rays and had to glue them back together. Fortunately, everything is so lightweight that the glue will hold it up even before it sets up completely. But this little guy is going to be a “just for show” piece. I need to learn to make them more sturdy before I try to make jewelry with them. I think my next star project will be a red giant.
